POSTED BY: Eurobasket Center
Muhammad Ilyas was named to lead Pakistan in the basketball tournament of the first Islamic Solidarity Games to be hosted by Saudi Arabia from April 8.
The ad hoc committee of the Pakistan Amateur Basketball Federation announced the 12-member team in Islamabad on Saturday.
As Pakistan will feature in an international basketball tournament after a long gap of 10 years, the entire team is made up of inexperienced players.
Pakistan last fielded their basketball team in the 1995 SAF Games where they finished runners-up to hosts India.
Besides captain Ilyas, other members of the team are Atif Riaz, Pervaiz Hussain, Khalid Ahmed, Mir Alam Khan, Muddasir Khan, Waheed Iqbal, Sher Bahadur, Ghulam Mustafa, Imran Munawar, Muhammad Prem Shehzad and Muhammad Akhtar. Adnan Khan and Shehryar were named as reserves.
Lt Col Naseem Butt, who is also the secretary of the PABBF ad hoc committee, will manage the team in Saudi Arabia while former Pakistan captains Chaudhry Mohammad Bashir and Ghulam Haider are the coaches.
As many 24 players were selected for a training camp after the National Basketball Championship held in the NWFP city of Nowshera in December last year. The camp began on January 10 at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad.
The number of players at the training camp were trimmed to 14 late last month.
Pakistan have been placed in Group D of the Islamic Games tournament along with Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Tajikistan and Chad. As many as 22 teams are taking part in the event's basketball championship.
